The Descriptive Review of a Child Protocol" is a great tool to be implemented during meetings and especially in a one that includes creating a profile that covers the social, academic, and behavior of a child. Just imagine a child who behaves very well with some teachers, unacceptable with other teachers, and the parents feel the child is an outstanding students. Each party in the meeting will argue to create a child profile. This is very time consuming and this protocol will meet the needs of the presenter and facilitator.

This activity seems as though it could really be a valuable one for building an educational community not only within school walls but also in the home.

To get parents to be able to think about their child through this educational and personal lens would be incredibly valuable. That is if, of course, the family had the time and resources to dedicate to this activity.

I suppose extra time is becoming more rare these days, especially among families in urban settings. As an aside, neither Bennington college, nor its educational center, are in urban settings. Very much the opposite.

We got 3 page narrative reports instead of report cards. His 2nd grade teacher had him read to us at a family conference and explained exactly what literacy skills he had (intonation, decoding, etc). She knew his interests and how to engage him, who he chose to work with at work time, and his specific strengths and challenges. All of the teachers in the school collaborated and learned about each child so that there was continuity as they progressed through the years. I had never seen anything like it. It was amazing.

I agree with the idea that first educators need to know their students before trying to solve any problem. I observed that some teachers put a name on their students without knowing them, or why their behavior is like that. I believe in a restorative circle as a way to talk and to create that relationship with our students, educators, parents, where we give the possibility to our students to express themselves. In this way, we learn about their needs.

In past experiences, I have seen teachers attempt to re-build a child accrording to what they feel the child lacks and needs. While setting goals for students in terms of their behavior and academics, is not bad, nevertheless, getting to know the student allows us to better tailor our lessons and help them benefit the most from them.

I have read Pat Carini’s work in various education classes over the past four years or so, and every time I reread this protocol, I have to appreciate how rooted in observation it is. We are so used to hearing things like, “Johnny’s a bad kid” or “Riley is so smart”, but what does that really mean? This process seeks to address some need a student has by gaining a better understanding of that child through observation. We become scientists looking for evidence, and our own biases should hopefully be left at the door.

The descriptive review of a child protocol is created this process is created to target, identify, and work on the child’s needs to better provide the services students need.
Through this process a child can receive support in many areas in which development t needs to be reinforced.

Teachers needs to understand that there are many students in a classroom, which all have different needs. 90 minutes is not enough to assume something. However, there are many teachers that do not want to get updated. They believe that their old method is just the right one. However, things have changed.

The exercise of observing a child can be linked to a method I learned for encountering works of fine art, such as a painting. First, one should simply take a substantial amount of time to note what you notice. As that process continues, the mind starts to shift to curiosity… one may wonder, “why did Van Gogh put a big cypress tree in the foreground of Starry Night?” When it comes to observing a child, you might notice the child getting agitated and throwing nearby items at around the same time every day, and then wonder what the reason for that behavior is, and work from there to deduce and address the situation.

I think this approach, because it is very in-depth and involves many collaborators, can be seen as new and radical since the discussion and the plan for the child will involve people outside of the child’s educational bubble which can be seen as unfavorable for teachers and other professionals.

One of the steps that to my understanding is essential when creating this type of process is the introduction. That is because knowing the goal and the people that will be working and providing the services and instruction is key during this process. Also, recognizing the child’s areas of reinforcement, specific information, child’s background, and family participation as well as the tools and what the goal and final outcomes of this process will be about.

During the descriptive review of the child, parents, teacher, counselor, psychologist, and any other concern school staff should be present, but teacher is the person trained to observe students behavior that can affect the school or classroom environment while the parents can provide the behavior of the child at home. The other parties may see the child not as frequently. The teacher is very valuable during section 2, describing the child.

because there is no mission accomplished with no clear path, a path that we clearly remember. This part of the process is for that, to re-state the path, the focus of the study.

While I think all of these steps hold much value, I think the most valuable step is the discussion and recommendations. This is the “action” part of the protocol in which a plan is designed that considers the whole child.

I can relate this process to the response to intervention process many schools use to support students. In this process, all students participate in screening and interim assessment to check their progress. For those that aren’t performing to the benchmarks, more work is done to understand why and supports are provided. For those students who are not make sufficient progress given targeted supports, a problem-solving committee may convene that examines the student from different perspectives. All stakeholders involved, including the child if they are old enough, should be invited to these meetings. Diagnostic assessments are often performed, along with close evaluation of student work and student characteristics to understand the child more fully. I think that this descriptive child process would actually fit really well as an initial problem-solving meeting! I’m just not sure there would be enough time to conduct this type of meeting with all students who need this level of support.

Here’s a link to the problem-solving meeting protocol in case you are interested. https://www.interventioncentral.org/sites/default/files/workshop_files/allfiles/Companion_Guide_Tier_3_RTI_Team_Revised.pdf

The most straightforward way might be to have the student teacher act as a facilitator while the host teacher takes on the role of the the main presenter. Alternately, the host teacher and the student teacher could both act as presenters, with the host being the main presenter. If the host teacher weren’t comfortable taking the lead as the main presenter, I suppose the student teacher could take on the role and the host teacher could be an auxiliary presenter. Implementing the Descriptive Review has the advantage of being able to use multiple configurations.

It’s hard to say how one might respond to criticisms of this protocol without knowing what those criticisms are. But I suppose that even without knowing that information, one can see that the flexibility and dynamism of Kelly’s framework provides many ways to handle strong criticism and even disagreement.

Involving the child’s entire community as much as possible can be highly effective in improving the educational experience of a student. I think having these outside collaborators (parents, mentors, counselors) can really help educators get a better understanding and profile of the child as these other people in their lives get to see a different side of them and can input on a child’s strengths, weaknesses, and overall temperament.

When the child gets angry he often crosses his arms or throws himself on the floor. When he is outdoors he runs away or around the playground. He screams or talks very loud. Feelings are expressed fully. When he is happy he is laughing and smiling, when he is upset he is screaming or crying. Feelings are visible in tone, actions, and body language.

I believe making deep observations based on the students gestures and presence in the classroom can be helpful when trying to understand the student as a person. This may gave indications to the teacher on the students enthusiasm or look of, in the class, as well as their understanding or comfort in the particular setting. Body language can help one learn what is on the students mind that they are not verbally sharing.

Having an understanding of how the student choose to exhibit their feelings through action, gesture and sound are greatly important as they set the baseline for behaviors that are typically for the student versus those that demonstrate some level of distress. Additionally, this information is essential to share with the students’ future educators to both get to know the students as well as record any progress or regress that the student is demonstrating.

The child has friends that are changeable. He is recognized by name and he is invited to join games and activities. He is comfortable in the group but sometimes prefers to play alone. Tensions get resolved by using words or finding a different activity for the moment then returning to the previous activity. He has a great relationship with me

I think this is something that is very overlooked in a class setting and often underestimated. Understanding your students social skills, and whether their skills hinder or enhance their learning experience is important. I believe this will also help to create lessons that include more engagement to help the students learn to work collaboratively and engage with others as a part of their learning. Through observation, you can also attempt to understand why the student is able to or unable to build on relationships in class and ultimately work with parents to better support the students, with additional info.

I was amazed by these questions. Because my time observing in schools was so limited due to different areas I had to focus on getting information on, I never got the chance to pay close attention whether the child belong to a specific group or had a preference being around certain people. This something I will definitely consider during my future observations.

While many times we focus solely on the work that we have students complete and their ability to do so effectively, we should also keep an eye out for the way our students interact with others socially. Such would require us to consider the manner in which students communicate, problem solving and engage with both their peers and adults.

He loves to read and be read to. He also enjoys looking at maps and other places in the world. When he draws he usually tries to draw another continent because of his love for maps. He is very passionate about this interest. The child completes projects thoroughly and takes pride in his creations and work. He needs to start over if he makes a visible mistake.

This is one thing I will share with my host teacher. It is important to provide children with a rich classroom environment. This means that children will be exposed to a variety of centers making it possible for them to participate in many different activities. This will allow the teacher to see what activities interest the child and what activities they demonstrate a lack of interest.

He is interested in learning new things and gaining new skills. He relies on observation as well as steps and sequence. During math he focuses more on the steps and sequence, versus art where he observes more on technique. He is very strong with problem-solving and thinking reasonably and logically.

I love how specific these questions are. I never would have thought to consider questions like; “How would you characterize the child as a thinker? What ideas and content have appeal?”Is there a speculative streak? A problem-solving one? A gift for analogy and metaphor? For image?" Thes are crucial questions that, when answered honestly- give us a plethora of important information about our students.

The more we know each student as a learner, the more equipt we become to engage in instruction that is sensative to their needs and appealing to their interests. Moreover, we are able to tailor meaningful learning experiences that students are eager to participate in.

These are good questions to discover the child’s learning style and interests to incorporate them into the lessons.

I think I can present this protocol to a host teacher by focusing on the benefits and the aspect of involving a child’s community in their learning. It is a heavier and more demanding protocol, however, it focuses on the whole-child and allows for a deeper understanding of the student and for more easily implemented preventative measures.

I think when reading the protocol it seems a bit intensive because of all the little details in the description of the child. However, as an educator you should be getting to know your students on a deeper level and be able to have a mental note on many of the questions you could ask. Also, other participants involved with the child can contribute some responses. Maybe a student doesn’t necessarily gravite to you but knows staff or another teacher that share the same interests and gravitated towards them.